What Grant Hart Means To Me
I first heard Grant Hart, who died on September 13, 2017 at the tragically young age of 56, on Hüsker Dü ' s Candy Apple Grey , the band's underrated and oft-maligned major label debut from 1986. As a fan of Bob Mould's Sugar, I decided to finally take the plunge into Hüsker Dü 's catalog, and this was the first album I was able to find. By Candy Apple Grey , the band had nearly perfected their poppy power trio attack, mixing heavy, buzzsaw guitars with power pop affectations. Those elements were always there, even on 1981's raucous, live album Land Speed Record and the hardcore, yet melodic, Everything Falls Apart. By 1986, after several more seminal records ( Zen Arcade , New Day Rising , Flip Your Wig ) in the hardcore/indie cannon, they perfected the form. Alternating between Mould's generally faster songs that increasingly relied on pop sensibilities and Hart's more lyrically-and vocally-focused songwriter paeans, both revolving heavily around ...